Schools

Send announcements to The Loudoun Connection, 7913 Westpark Drive, McLean, VA 22102, e-mail to loudoun@connectionnewspapers.com or fax to 703-917-0991. Deadline is two weeks before the event. Photos/artwork encouraged. For more information, call Jennifer Lesinski at 703-917-6454.

This free listing is reserved for activities and events that are open to the public at no or minimal cost.

River Bend Middle School presents its third annual musical production, "Hello, Dolly!" Performances will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, April 29; Saturday, April 30; and Friday, May 6, and Saturday, May 7. An afternoon matinee is scheduled for 2 p.m. Sunday, May 1.

Ticket order forms are available at the River Bend main office. The cost is $5 each, and seats are assigned on a first-come, first-served basis. Limited tickets may be available at the door on performance days. River Bend Middle School is located at 46240 Algonkian Parkway in Potomac Falls. Visit the RBMS Web site at: http://www.loudoun.k12.va.us/schools/rbms/.

The Dominion High School theatre department will be performing the Off- Broadway revival of "Anything Goes," a musical comedy by Cole Porter. Laura Fender stars as Reno Sweeney with supporting roles from Michael Royce, Stephanie Ganderilla, Alex Davenport, Kerry Chapman, and Allegra Joffe. Performances are scheduled for April 28-30, at 7:30 p.m. and May 1, at 3 p.m. Tickets available at the door for $7. Dominion High School is located at 21326 Augusta Drive in Sterling.

The 10th Congressional District Art Show will be Friday, May 6, at Heritage High School. The competition is open to all high-school students in the 10th District. Students interested in participating should contact their school's art teachers or principals for detailed information on how to enter their work.

All pieces entered in the competition will be displayed at the show, which will be open to the public from 5-7 p.m., at Heritage High School, 520 Evergreen Mill Road, S.E., Leesburg. The entry named "Best in Show" will be displayed in the U.S. Capitol for a year, alongside "Best in Show" entries from similar shows in congressional districts across the country.

Kindergarten through third-grade students at The Boyd School's Broadlands Campus created and submitted posters for Loudoun's 2005 Arbor Day Poster Contest using various mediums including crayons, markers and watercolors. The theme this year was Root for Big Trees. Darya Tahan and Fiona Smith from the Lower Elementary class were among 50 winners throughout the Loudoun school system.Ê

Six Dominion High School students were named Gold Key winners in the Scholastic Arts & Writing Competition for 2005. The Gold Key winners were freshman Lourdes Bernasconi for the mixed media entry "The City of Kami," her art teacher is Linda Burke; freshman Guilherme Villar for the mixed media entry "Coacocabana," Burke also is Villar's art teacher; senior Kristin Claeys for her category drawing "Victorian House," her art teacher is Augusta Dadiego; sophomore Austin Pike for his category drawing "Still Life no. 4," he also is taught by Dadiego; freshman Iveth Flores for the painting "Aztec Soul," Sherri Isbister is Flores' art teacher; sophomore Jeremy Johnson for his photograph "Compassion," Isbister is his art teacher. This is the first Gold Key that Dominion has earned in the area of photography.

Their works will be among 15,000 pieces of artwork judged at the national level. A selection of 650 artworks will be chosen for the national level awards. Winning National artworks will be on display in New York and Washington, D.C., at the Corcoran Gallery. These artworks become part of a traveling exhibition for two years following their selection.

A designated portion of Park View High School, 400 W. Laurel Ave., Sterling, has been recognized as a National Wildlife Federation Schoolyard Habitat site. The certified site is a model of ecological stewardship and common sense conservation for the community. It also functions as a living classroom that offers students and educators enhanced learning experiences across all subject areas. The site at Park View is No. 2,244 in a network of certified sites nationwide.

Potomac Falls High School has earned the designation of Virginia Honor Band for the seventh straight year. On Saturday, March 12, the Symphonic Band, under the direction of Tim Niebergall, participated in the Virginia Band and Orchestra Directors Association (VBODA) District XVI High School Band Festival at Dominion High School. The band was adjudicated by four music educators that provided both written and tape-recorded comments concerning the performance. In a unanimous decision, the judges awarded the Symphonic Band a "superior" rating. This success, along with the "superior" rating the Potomac Falls Marching Band earned last October, places this program among the elite band music programs in the state.

Students at Ashburn Elementary School will learn about marine science in an exciting new way, through the eyes and perceptions of teacher Melissa Fye, who is getting first-hand research experience aboard a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration oceanographic research ship as part of NOAA's Teacher at Sea program.

Fye, who teaches fourth grade, is sailing aboard the 224-foot NOAA research ship Hi'ialakai April 4-23 from Honolulu, Hawaii, to work with scientists as they conduct deep water mapping in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands. The ship supports coral reef ecosystem mapping and habitat activities under NOAA's National Ocean Service.

While on board, Fye will take pictures and write daily logs that include information about the latitude, longitude, sea temperatures and other data, research of the day, and interviews with scientists. The logs will be e-mailed to her school, where students can follow her activities. Students and others can also email questions about the voyage to her.

Yohan Sumathipala, a fifth-grader at Dominion Trail Elementary School in Ashburn, tied for fourth place in the Virginia Geography Bee held Friday, April 1, at Old Dominion University. Tatiana Lozano, a fifth-grader at Catoctin Elementary, finished in the top 10.

Students from fourth through eighth grades participate in the State Geography Bee. They must have participated in, and won, a contest at the school level to preliminarily qualify for the state bee. To qualify, students participate in a statewide written examination. The 100 students, who score the highest on the written examination advance to the state finals. The 11 students representing Loudoun County included Alex Barclay, Farmwell Station Middle School; Steven Balik, Sterling Middle; Rachael Diniega, River Bend Middle School; Tatiana B. Lozano, Catoctin Elementary; Christopher G. Miller, Mountain View Elementary; Partha Narasimhan, Hutchison Farm Elementary; Manhas Narra, Eagle Ridge Middle School; Matt Noonan, Seneca Ridge Middle School; Stephen Shiflett, Harper Park Middle School; Yohan Sumathipala, Dominion Trail Elementary and Sam Yager, Mercer Middle School.

About 100 students from the Loudoun County Department of Social Services' Young Adults Project (YAP) and the Alternative Education Program at Douglass School attended a first-of-its kind job fair at the school.

Eleven employers sent representatives to the fair to talk to interested students about job possibilities. They also had job applications ready for students to fill out. In addition to the employers, representatives of the Loudoun County Workforce Resource Center were on hand to talk about the many services the center offers job seekers.

blood drive. Two hundred, twenty-six students signed up to participate and donate blood and 156 pints of blood were collected from students, faculty and staff.

The 2005 edition of "Who's Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges" includes 27 students from Marymount University including Seema Sabri of Ashburn, a psychology major, student ambassador, founder and president of the Muslim Student Alliance, International Club member, Psi-Chi member, psychology honor society member, and co-curricular council member. Students were chosen based on their academic achievement, service to the community, leadership in extracurricular activities and potential for continued success.

Boyd School Broadlands Campus students in Classroom 5 joined together April 22 and braved the elements to help clean up The Boyd School outdoor environment in honor of Earth Day. Everyone donned old clothes, boots and rain gear and headed to the stream in front of the parking lot. The children picked up non-natural items for the trash but also found a frog hiding in the cattails. Earlier this month in celebration of Earth Day and Arbor Day, the Virginia Department of Forestry donated seedlings to the school. Each classroom planted their seedling on the school grounds and each student took a seedling home to plant in their own yard.

Meadowland Elementary recently held a "Wacky Hair Day."

Students were asked to donate money to aid children affected by last year's tsunami if they wanted to wear their hair in a wacky hairstyle. Donations as small as a penny were accepted. The event raised more than $700 for those in need.

Members of Park View High School's bands and choirs did well at the Festivals of Music Competition held April 8 and 9, in Myrtle Beach, S.C. Combined the bands, choirs and guitar ensemble won 13 out of the 20 awards given at the competition. In addition, the band and choir won three out of the four overall awards. The bands and choir competed against schools from Minnesota, Maine, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia. The results of the competition: Concert Band, first place, Superior Rating; Percussion Ensemble, first place, Superior Rating; Jazz Ensemble; first place, Excellent Rating; Concordia, first place, Superior Rating; Varsity Singers, first place, Superior Rating; Persuasion, first place, Excellent Rating; Patriots Women's Un-Select Choir, fourth place, Good Rating; Guitar Ensemble received an Excellent Rating non-competition; Overall Awards, Best Concert Band, Best Mixed Choir (Concordia), Best Overall Choir (Varsity Women's), Most Outstanding Rhythm Section (Jazz Ensemble), Best Instrumental Sight-Reading (Concert Band).

The Parent Teacher Student Organization (PTSO) of Potomac Falls High School received a $2,500 grant presented by the Redskins' Charitable Foundation and the Freddie Mac Foundation for its "Teens Helping Teens Community Service Project."

The grant, awarded as part of the Redskins All-Stars Community Service Initiative, seeks to encourage community service, dedication and teamwork among area youth.

Under the guidance of PTSO parent Jewel Lee Doherty and student co-chairs John Marin and Austin Baird, Potomac Falls ' students pledged 205 hours of volunteer time for their Teens Community Service Project.

The PTSO initiated the Teens Helping Teens Project to coordinate a holiday gift collection for teens in need served by the Loudoun County Department of Social Services Community Holiday Coalition. The students collected new, unwrapped gifts in the main lobby for a week. More than 400 items, valued at more than $5,000, were collected. The Redskins All-Stars grant will enable the 30 students and four parents at Potomac Falls to launch five new service initiatives, seeking to help save teens' lives through a safe driving initiative; assist senior citizens in need; tutor ESL (English as a second language) and at-risk elementary school students; develop a minority students' mentor/career resource program; help teens through a drug and alcohol community prevention program.

Loudoun County Public Schools' students won several top honors at the 2005 Virginia State Science and Engineering Fair, held in early April, in the Brock Center at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland. First- and second-place award winners from the Loudoun Science and Engineering Fair were invited to attend this contest.

The following students won awards in the statewide competition: Behavioral and Social Sciences, first place, Kimberly Winters, Dominion High School, "Who Came First? An Analysis of Migration via North American and European Projectile Points;" Biochemistry, honorable mention, Valerie Rankin, Broad Run High School, "The Relationship Between the Width of a Blood Drop and the Height from which it was Dropped;" Computer Science, honorable mention, Doupamo Eradiri, Broad Run High School, "The Effect of Thermoelectric Cooling on Processor Performance;" Earth and Space Sciences, honorable mention, Michael Fowler, Stone Bridge High School, "Correlation of Sunspots and Hurricanes;" Engineering, honorable mention, Robert Minehart III, Dominion High School, "Stability Effects of Micro-Foils on Supercavitating Torpedoes;" Environmental Sciences, third place, Chris Zachariasse, Broad Run High School, "The Effect of Electricity on Scleracatinian;" Microbiology, honorable mention, Guo-Howe Shao, Park View High School, "Bacterial Inhibition by Peppers;" Special Award Winners, American Meteorological Society, Outstanding Project in Meteorology, Fowler; American Psychological Association, Outstanding Research in Psychology under Behavioral and Social Sciences, Winters; Mitretek Systems, Sustainable Development Award, Zachariasse; SAIC, honorable mention, Samuel Tutko, Stone Bridge High School, "Active vs. Passive Magnetic Levitation for Trains;" honorable mention, Avik Dayal, Broad Run High School, "An Improved Zeeman Cooling Technique to Trap Antihydrogen Atoms;" Virginia Dental, Best Chemistry, Nicole Pappano, Dominion High School, "Remediation of Trichloroethylene Contaminants via Fenton's Reagent;" Best Environmental Sciences, Zachariasse.

Four Loudoun County students captured state-level honors at the Virginia Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) Conference April 1 and 2 in Reston. The top-three finishers at the state level in each competition category move on to FBLA's National Leadership Conference, June 24-27, in Orlando, Fla.

Park View High School senior Justin York placed first in Java Programming. Park View senior Andy Jackson placed fourth in C++ Programming. Potomac Falls High School senior Doug Geiger won first place in Business Calculations. Potomac Falls juniors Nina Santiago and Rachel Escueta placed second in Web Site Design.

The Potomac and Chesapeake Association for College Admission Counseling (PCACAC) has named Charles Smith, a guidance counselor at Potomac Falls High School, as a recipient of the Marion R. Flagg Scholarship.

This scholarship recognizes high-school counselors and college admissions officials for their exceptional work with under-represented populations in the college admissions process.

Smith's nomination was based on his work with the College Achievement Ñ a Minority Program for Unique Students (CAMPUS). The scholarship provides a one-year membership to PCACAC.

Sterling Middle School students recently proved their generosity through a number of charitable efforts. Sterling Middle School students collected more than $1,000 during lunch periods for the tsunami relief effort. Three boxes of food items were collected in a week's time for Interfaith Relief. Prior to the Winter Holiday, LINK received 30 boxes of food items and a check for $1,500 from Sterling Middle School students. Three boxes of toys were collected in a week's time for the Women's Shelter. More than 2,900 items were collected during the school's "Treats for Troops" campaign. These items will be shipped to members of the Armed Services in Iraq. Seventh-grade Dean Daniel Buchanan and Assistant Principal Tom Pollock will kiss a pig since the seventh grade had the most items collected.